Another great performance by the Wings. Glad I slept thru this one, being hungover sucks, but not as bad as the Wings apparently. Next game is against Columbus, a 4 point game, hopefully they are saving the goals for that one.

The second goal was just a hard tto track deflection no chance on that but the third one, ugh. This team needs some serious stability on the defensive side I know it will not happen this season but for next season, take advantage of the Canucks firesale and get someone like Hamhuis, Bieksa, Ehrhoff or Andy Macdonald. Our goalies need to almost play flawlessly every time in order to have a chance..

Ericsson has had maybe the worst two weeks of hockey his entire career. Quincey is still here and Lundqvist vs. Howard. Need I say more? Rangers play better defense than the Devils. They played with more heart and urgency today. Missing the playoffs might wake up management unfortunately.

The second goal was just a hard tto track deflection no chance on that but the third one, ugh. This team needs some serious stability on the defensive side I know it will not happen this season but for next season, take advantage of the Canucks firesale and get someone like Hamhuis, Bieksa, Ehrhoff or Andy Macdonald. Our goalies need to almost play flawlessly every time in order to have a chance..

yes, please god get someone who can help the D, an upgrade is long overdue

I don't know if it's by design or what, but all our D were either drafted by the Wings(Kronner, Big E, Smith, Kindl, Lashoff, and Quincey) or signed out of college(Danny D)

not even sure it matters, either, but it is weird to have an entirely 'homegrown' D corps

I definitely don't blame Howard for that loss. The 3rd goal was lame. It looked like Jimmy was far enough out of the net to think he was getting ready to head out for the extra attacker, but there was over 7 minutes left so there goes that. It just really seems like the boys always play better when Gustavsson is in net for whatever reason. I don't know what to make of today's effort. Hopefully tuesday they kill the BJ's and get back on track.

They've played 4 games in 6 nights. The top guns were gassed. Babcock should have maybe inserted some of the guys who didn't play as much up to the top line because the bottom 6 looked better than the top 6

Again, nothing is ever on Howard. I don't understand this. Like, I get that he's a convenient scapegoat and that that's bulls***. But, at the same time, he's letting us down, hardcore. I'm not talking about this goal or that goal or this game or that game. I'm talking about a losing record and a mountain of suck in a season where we need him to be a superstar more than we've ever needed our #1 goalie to be a superstar. The fact that the team in front of him sucks makes it that much more essential that henot suck. He needs to be our best player. As Babs has said, we go as far as Jimmy Howard takes us. That's why people are going apes***. Because an underperforming Howard means we have no shot at anything, as nice as an overperforming Gustavsson is.

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

Yes Howard gets absolutely no flack on this forum. He has played bad and cost us games but this game was not on him. Blame scheduling. Our only chance would be if we could net some on the PP. The team looked very tired. Especially our top lines and defensemen

So what we have is a goalie who is CURRENTLY 30th-40th in terms of numbers compared to other NHL Goalies and has the most overtime/SO loses (meaning he isn't very clutch when the time comes).

I stressed Currently because you can argue about what he did in the past or what he might do in the future, but RIGHT NOW he is not very good. and nowhere near ELITE, unless you consider being the 30th best goalie in the league elite!

Edit: And I understand that it's not 100% his fault, the rest of the team has some impact on these numbers, but that only gets you so far. I mean Ryan Miller was putting up better numbers in BUF and they have a really s***ty team.

Put Smith on the PP! Absolutely ridiculous. DD is brutal single hardly killed a full minute on his own today. He has never done anything positive on the PP and I don't expect him to. Smith deserves that spot on the PP. He has the 2nd best shot from our defense and has a touch of offensive instincts